LONDON, June 17 (UPI) -- The British government went to war with Iraq using "selected" information, a former cabinet minister said in a report published Tuesday.
Robin Cook, who resigned as leader of the House of Commons over the war, told the Foreign Affairs Select Committee the government had scored a "spectacular own goal" in publishing its dossier about Saddam Hussein, the London Telegraph said.
Asked if intelligence had been "sexed up" to back the decision to go to war, Cook said: "I think there was a selection of evidence to support the conclusion."
He said he was "disappointed" by the quality of the intelligence in the September dossier as it did not provide "any recent and alarming" intelligence to suggest that Iraq was a current and serious threat.
The committee is investigating claims Iraq was capable of launching weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes - a claim widely disputed among members of parliament.
